New Study: CBD Prevents and Reverses Antipsychotic-Induced Catalepsy
New research published by the U.S. National Institute of Health, and published in-print by the journal Behavioural Brain Research, has found
that cannabidiol can attenuate catalepsy induced by haloperidol, and can prevent it if taken prior to the use of haloperidol.
Catalepsy is a trancelike state marked by loss of voluntary motion, sensations and consciousness accompanied by rigidity of the body, and haloperidol is an antipsychotic used to treat certain medical conditions such as Tourette syndrome and bipolar disorder.
“Given that CBD reduces psychotic symptoms without inducing extrapyramidal motor side-effects in animal models and schizophrenia patients, it has been proposed to act as an atypical antipsychotic”, states the study’s abstract. “In addition, CBD reduced catalepsy induced by drugs with distinct pharmacological mechanisms, including the typical antipsychotic haloperidol”
To further investigate this latter effect, they “tested whether CBD (15-60mg/kg) would attenuate the catalepsy and c-Fos protein expression in the dorsal striatum induced by haloperidol (0.6mg/kg).” They also “evaluated if these effects occur through the facilitation of 5-HT1A receptor-mediated neurotransmission.”
For this, male Swiss mice were treated with CBD and haloperidol systemically and then subjected to the catalepsy test.
“As expected, haloperidol induced catalepsy throughout the experiments, an effect that was prevented by systemic CBD treatment 30min before haloperidol administration. Also, CBD, administered 2.5h after haloperidol, reversed haloperidol-induced catalepsy“, the study states.
The study concludes; “Altogether, these results suggest that CBD acts in the dorsal striatum to improve haloperidol-induced catalepsy.”
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, can be found by clicking here.